This Eyeliner Stayed on During an Entire Surf Session. No Joke.

Every woman who’s every swiped on two or three layers of waterproof mascara and then had immediate plans to jump into a pool has definitely had a wince of fear that her makeup might not actually be resistant to H2O. Come on, I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t want raccoon eyes.

It’s with that very thought that I decided I needed to test out my waterproof eyeliner the brave way—by applying it generously on my lower and upper lash lines and then diving into the ocean and sweating it out at the beach.

I decided to up the ante a little bit. Black eyeliner would have been the obvious choice, but I went for an electric blue hue. I was either going to look like a mermaid princess or a sad, 70s disco dancer who got caught in the rain and then forgot to take off her makeup before bed. Picture that for a minute, will you?

Moving on! The eyeliner of choice? Make Up For Ever’s Aqua XL Eyeliner ($21; sephora.com). I’ve used it on numerous occasions and it’s got a ton of buzz from the beauty world, but I had never really put it to the water sports test.

Not only did I dunk under about 344 waves with this stuff on my eyes—I took surf lessons.

Like I mentioned before, I put on quite a few layers to my top and bottom lash lines.

I applied it at about 6:30 AM before leaving my house for the day. When I finally got to the beach, it was about 2 PM, and it still looked 100 percent.

I got into the water for about an hour soon thereafter and surfed the entire time. That means getting knocked over my massive (read: terrifying) waves over and over and over again.

I figured someone would tell me if I had makeup smeared all over my face, but no one said a word. Were they just being incredibly nice and didn't want to embarrass me, or did it really stand up to the big bad blue?

Well, I’m pleased to say it actually performed. I’d give it a 10 out of 10 because while it faded, it was still completely intact. And by that I mean, it was still exactly where I applied it on my face and you could tell I was wearing eyeliner.

I’ve decided that I’m testing out paddle boarding this weekend, and I’m pretty sure the occasion calls for a little more blue eyeliner. I might not be skilled at this balancing act, but at least I know my makeup will look good.

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